What can IT do to improve training and support for business users?

First, let me state the assumptions I am using that make the rest of this post even mildly worth reading.

Assumption 1: The effort and expense of more than cursory training is appropriate. It would not make sense to do a massive training effort if the whole user base is only going to be five people. In that case, it may be more cost effective just to sit down with each of them.

Assumption 2: The application itself is complex enough to require more than cursory training. An application that only has five buttons to push will not require much in the way of training.

Assumption 3: The application provides enough ROI to the business to warrant more than cursory training. If it is only going to make you a small return and you spend it on your training effort...

Given those assumptions, I believe that training will always be inconsistent if there is no focus point for it. If each individual IT team that deploys an application creates the training, then you will always get a mixed bag. Training is one of those things that everyone knows is important, yet only a few takes seriously (like testing). What I mean is this...if the project runs into a time crunch, the first things that get short shrift are testing and training. So the first thing is that training has to be taken seriously...by everyone...all the way up into upper management.

Second, it needs to be understood that training does not mean writing up a document and posting it somewhere for people to read. I think this is a good first step...but not the end. Different people learn differently. Some would rather read the document and that is enough training. Others require more interaction and so need someone (like an instructor) to help them along. Others would better respond to some sort of training video. None of these indicate that a person is better or worse than another...just that they acquire information in different ways. So, ideal training would be offered in several mediums. What this means is that sometimes, in person training is the best way.

Third, there should always be a play environment available for the user. Often times people are reluctant to act on the knowledge imparted by training because they are afraid of making a mistake. If they had a playground they could use to try their new knowledge out without the possibility of messing something up, they would be more inclined to consolidate their new knowledge. This playground should be kept up to date.

I think that tools such as Sharepoint, Live Meeting and MS Communicator (as noted by Mr. Morgasen above)...or their non-MS equivalents, are all great...although I am not a big fan of PowerPoint as a training delivery tool (but that is just a personal preference...see my paragraph about people learning in different ways). I also like his idea of a User Group Community.

One thing I find both practical and helpful is to put up an application home page..not just the login page of the application. From that page, you can have links to the playground I noted above, FAQs relevant to that specific application, links to training videos, documents, etc. and notifications (such as planned outages). You can put all kinds of things on such a page.

So, to tie all this up and make it relevant to the original question about leveraging investment in IT empowered communication and collaboration...these are just tools. While these tools ARE great, they need to be utilized correctly and consistently across all of the core applications. This implies taking training seriously and having a centralized area responsible for training. So, to more properly leverage the investment, you need to not treat it as the solution. Tools are there to support the solution...not be the solution itself.

What a great question, at least for me. I am part of a group that is responsible for the design, build, and deployment of collaboration tools for our enterprise. So when I tell you one of the best ways to deploy trining for the enterprise it is by using collaboration tools.

In my enterprise we have implemeted the Microsoft suite of collaboration tools. Those tools include; SharePoint, MS Communicator(OCS), and Live Meeting. What you have available to you is a complete set of tools to develop, manage, and deploy training programs. The only piece you need to add is Microsoft Office and you have the contnent creation tool.

One of my responsibilities is adoption of the collaboration tools and as part of that responsibility I have deleivered a lot of training especialliy for SharePoint. I have developed contnent using PowerPoint (a great training contnent creation platform) and then used Live Meeting to deliver the training to groups as large of 400 simultaneously. Live Meeting is a great presentation tool becasue it can be used by anybody inside or outside your enterprise since it is an externally hosted service by Microsoft.

One of the tools that I have also implemeted using these tools is a User Group that meetis via teleconference and Live Meeting on a weekly basis. On these calls I provide short training sessions and host discussions with members of the User Group Community as to the types of things that they want to do.

So my parting word to all of you is seek out these tools and find them. You will find a very cost effective way to get things done.

I totally agree with Barb Shaver that "The words 'mandatory', 'enforced', etc. are red flags for users." IT can often feel they've checked the "Train employees" box if they have a lunch-and-learn covering the rollout of new technology. However, this does not necessarily mean employees have learned.

In fact, it may mean that IT has interrupted employee productivity. An employee engrossed in a pressing project - a project unrelated to the training content - will probably spend the training session checking his BlackBerry or glancing down repeatedly at his opened laptop. So I'd totally agree that training needs to be provided in the formats that most appeal to end-users [web-based; instructor led; hands-on; guides; videos; etc.], but even the best training can be ineffective if it doesn't happen at the right time.

Training needs to be provided at the moment of need/pain if it is to be most effective.

One way to help this happen is to put more thought into the initial training material, with an aim to have one input produce multiple outputs. Let's say IT needs to train XP users who are moving up to Windows 7 [Can you tell I skipped Vista?]. The effective IT trainer will not want to have a separate meeting for every group in the company. Rather, she'll think of ways to use the same event multiple times.

In practice, IT could:
1. Create or compile training content [powerpoint or user guide]
2. Schedule a training meeting and video this meeting [with Camtasia or a Flip camera, for instance - nothing too elaborate]
3. Make the training documents and video available to users on demand - for most users, the first meeting or the video of the first meeting together with the training documents will be sufficient.
4. Use a collaborative support solution, like Bomgar [shameless plug for http://www.bomgar.com/], to respond to training requests at the moment of need.

Following an approach like this will help to cover all the bases. Those that need a formal presentation will have it. And not only can the other employees access the training material in the format best for them, they can also access it at the moment of need ... or even multiple times as needed. So anectodaly, if I'm in the last group to be upgraded to Windows 7, I don't have to harken back to a training session that happened 3 months ago.

Users learn most from training when the training both fits their learning style AND satisfies a felt need or pain. Covering the learning styles can be done cost-effectively if IT will put more thought into making the effort that goes into initial training reusable. If IT will do this, they will help cut the cost of training:
1. Since training won't interrupt the productivity of employees who don't yet need it, the business will avoid lost productivity.
2. Since the training content [even the video of the first session] will be available to employees when they need it, IT won't suffer the lost productivity that multiple, repetitive training sessions entail.
3. These two results will free up IT staff to respond immediately to end-users who still need guidance - which will already be a smaller pool now that the training content is available to everyone on demand. If IT will use a collaborative support solution to respond to these users, they'll further cut the cost of training.

Putting more effort and though into reusing our training sessions will both help employees retain the new material and lessen the burden on IT for training engagements.

In the end, since IT can't schedule the moment of need to coincide with a lunch-and-learn, it needs to make the training content accessible whenever the end-users need it.

I think the most important factor when training and supporting users is breaking the "language barrier". Taking the time to make sure the users understand the "technical jargon" makes them more comfortable with the information being presented to them. Having everyone consistent with terminology also greatly improves the time it takes to obtain additional technical support when needed without guessing what a user needs. Keep it simple, keep it consistent and you are one step closer to better educated employees.

Another thing I stress is ASK QUESTIONS!!! Make them comfortable asking you to elaborate or go over something again. You cannot guage what a user is retaining or if they are overwhelmed if they are uncomfortable or embarrassed to ask for help. There is a great article written by Andrew Van Slaars on the topic if you are interested in a little reading: http://observingbusiness.com/2009/03/29/stupid-questions/

And finally, follow up! Don't just throw a user to the wolves. Give them a day to get settled in after training and then check up on them. I can almost guarantee they will have questions to ask but may not take initiative to do so.